Recently, Hong Kong’s new online-only banks have planned to proceed into business lending and wealth management with a motive to seek more profitable revenues beyond the basic savings accounts and transfer services.
Hong Kong last year issued eight virtual banking licenses to companies including Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial and associations involving Standard Chartered, and Tencent.
These banks started last year and as of November had taken more than $1 billion in deposits and attracted nearly 300,000 customers.
Online only banks in Hong Kong are betting that they can easily win over customers with more attractive interest rates on savings and loans. They can offer it in the absence of costly branch networks along with more user-friendly apps as well as various other advantages.
Za Bank, which is operated by a unit of ZhongAN Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd, has decided its goal of breaking even in five years. It is aiming to expand beyond personal loans and lend loans to small and medium-sized firms next year as larger loans are more profitable. It will also offer insurance and investment services to retail customers.
ZA bank’s chief executive, Rockson Hsu, said, “I've got four years to go and personal loans by itself simply won't fly because the market is only so big."
Along with this, Mox Bank, whose backers include Standard Chartered and local telecoms firm PCCW, says it plans to add credit card, personal loans, and wealth management services by mid-2022.
Mox director and StanChart’s retail banking head for Greater China and North Asia, Samir Subberwal said, “Hong Kong is still a very big market for wealth management offerings".
He further added that the city’s current IPO boom, which has seen companies raise more than $50 billion this year, is likely to spike the continued demand for investment advice and fees.
This Hong Kong online only banks news has made the traditional banks slash their fees and they are now investing heavily in advancing and launching new digital platforms. HSBC said that it will spend $5.8 billion on technology this year while Citi Bank launched new digital-only banking services in Hong Kong. So, this might be beneficial to the traditional bank and Citi Bank users as the fees are reduced.
These new banks could be the biggest shake-up in years to Hong Kong's profitable retail banking sector and a benefit to the users with low charges and attractive offers.
Conclusion
The online-only banks are a new setup in Hong Kong and it might take a while for them to be completely hassle-free service providers.
Therefore, it is necessary that you learn about the banks before you make an investment. If you are using online-only banks, want to switch to other banks, and or planning to utilize the online banks, then you can read about their services on BankQuality. This platform allows you to read customer reviews and you can also give feedback and review of your banks as well.
Further readings: Why should you use Online-Banks: Here are the reasons